‘Being blessed’ is very much in our hands, but only if we can transcend our basic egocentricity and elevate our actions from a personal goal to an impersonal end, says BATURAM NAYAK

Being blessed is being in a state of fullness, by sheer Grace. It is a state of being devoid of all incompleteness, yet having the humble realisation that ‘I do not deserve this’. It is also having a sense of gratitude in confessing that ‘I have got more than what I am up to’.

In this very sense, being blessed is an elevation of one’s individuality to the realm of absolute humility. It is precisely in having this basic realisation that happiness happens and peace and bliss simply ensue as a trickling dividend.

But is it so easy to attain the state of such blessedness? The answer is both, yes and no.

Baturam Nayak

A simple truth about man is that he gets back from the world in a measure equal to his real worth. If his returns fall below expectations, it would raise enough questions for him to introspect where he really went wrong.

A proactive individual takes all responsibility himself and introspects. This simple soul-searching exercise reinforces his faith in himself and makes him focus his entire attention on his actions, for it is this alone that determines his trueness and courage.

This is also the basic message that Lord Krishna tried to convey to the perplexed fighter Arjuna on the battlefield of Mahabharat: उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं. (Liberate yourself, Oh Arjuna! by yourself!)

It is precisely this basic realisation that makes one tune with one’s inner self to overcome confusion and effortlessly continue on one’s path. And when an action is matched by value addition, it gives a man sufficient strength to set himself free of all inhibitions, shed all manner of guilt and be ready to receive grace.

By analysing our actions and its possible consequences, we can find a way to establish an equation with ourselves and our relationship with the world so that our deeds beget optimum good for both us and the universe. For, it is by virtue of our actions only that we become more than what we are and evolve as fully functioning individual entities and genuinely evolved social persons.

But so long as our actions are directed at our narrow personal interests, this simple Truth keeps eluding us and prevents us from being truly blessed.

The sooner we rise from our narrow personal cocoons and see ourselves as representatives of humanity in furthering the will of Divinity through our distinctively ordained vocations, the sooner we become God-hand in action. And then we will realise that we are active participants in a much greater project, which is larger and than our narrow personal ends.

Let’s take the analogy of a burning candle, identify ourselves with it and meditate for a while upon it. A candle makes itself shorter and lesser in the process of burning, but in that very process, glows far beyond its circumference and lights the periphery.

It is not for nothing that a candle is given a Divine status in this dictum:

दीप ज्योति परब्रह्म (The flame of a burning candle is the manifestation of the Supreme Lord).

Can’t we make our lives nobler like a burning candle and be blessed by the Supreme Lord?

‘Being blessed’ is very much in our hands, but only if we can transcend our basic egocentricity and elevate our actions from a personal goal to an impersonal end. He who succeeds in doing so, ceases to be a captive ‘Some-One’ and becomes a representative character of humanity, a glorious ‘No-One’, like the burning candle.

Such a person lives in the realm of sheer Grace and is truly blessed.

In fact, the blessing lies in the magic of understanding.

How about exploring this mystery in these words:

Bless Yourself. (Be less your-self, like the burning candle)

And in that very simple process, bless yourself!

Baturam Nayak, a postgraduate in economics, joined the banking sector in 1983 and retired in June 2020. He is a firm believer in simplicity and minimalism. “My faith is Oneness, एकत्वम्; that’s the way I would express myself and live in harmony with everything,” he says.